Growing up, the first kind of music I was exposed to was Original Pilipino Music (OPM). My mom would play cassette tapes of her favorite OPM hits from the 70s, 80s and 90s. I have fond memories of us singing all these songs using minus one tracks on our karaoke machine. OPM songs from that time were influenced by American pop music. Filipino/a/xs emulated the vocal and musical stylings of pop stars such as Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, and Stevie Wonder—it’s no wonder why I’m such a sucker for ballads! I thought to myself, why not celebrate and honor these beautiful songs, and let them come full circle to the art form of American musical theatre. Since most OPM songs are in Tagalog, the challenge for me was to interpret and translate all the lyrics into English so that they are more accessible to a wider audience. It was only fitting to weave all these cheesy love songs into a romantic comedy story.

Full Workshop Presentation Video Recording available upon request.